Oishi develops a taste for canned coffee

The food and beverage firm worked with Y&R Thailand to develop an integrated campaign comprising print, TV, radio, outdoor and an online component. It will position the canned coffee drink as equal to the coffees sold in cafés and coffee shops.

Targeted at “genuine coffee drinkers who need more than just a caffeine boost”, the campaign’s outlandish television spot opens with two office workers taking a coffee break.

As the workers are handed a can of CoffiO, a group of midgets suddenly appears.

The midgets detonate explosives to create a partition in the office walls, and a helicopter appears on the horizon to deliver a mobile coffee shop to the office.

CoffiO workers in the shop welcome the office workers and liken their enjoyment of the new beverage to that of being in a real coffee joint.

“The product was launched during peak season for beverages in the Thai market, from March to May,” said Tida Vibulvanich, managing partner of Y&R Thailand. “We wanted to introduce the concept of a premium coffee being readily available to everyone, so we included a tie-in with 7-11, the largest chain of convenience stores in the country.”

She added: “There are lots of promotions going on at the moment for rival beverages, so we needed to differentiate CoffiO from the other two key leading brands, Birdy and Nestlé, that have been in the market for years and are popular with Thai consumers because of their lower price.”

Thailand’s 20 billion baht (US$600 million) ready-to-drink coffee industry is made up of more than 25 different brands.

Birdy leads the pack with 70 per cent of the total market share.

Thai Beverage, the largest brewer and distiller in Thailand, recently bought a 44 per cent stake in Oishi for 6.9 billion baht as it looks to expand its business into the non-alcoholic drink market.